Best of G&R: The Importance of Karl Marx w/ Prof. David McNally

Best of G&R: The Importance of Karl Marx w/ Prof. David McNally
German social, political and economic theorist Karl Marx (1818 - 1883) the inspiration of modern international communism. (Photo by Henry Guttmann Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Karl Marx would have been 205 today.  So we’re re-sharing our birthday episode interview with Prof. David McNally about Marx from 2022.

Listen in here: https://bit.ly/3MQmhvV

David McNally is one of the more important Marxist scholars in the world, and we talked to him today on the anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth–May 5th, 1818.  McNally discussed a wide array of topics, including his introduction to Marxist thought, important texts to use to discover Marx’s writings, the importance of Marx’s concept of “alienated labor,” his formulation of class struggle, and why democracy is essential to socialism.

We also discussed the history of Marx’s influence in European politics and how Americans came to discover Marx in the late 19th Century. And we finished with a discussion of why Marx remains relevant today and why Marxism is seeing a resurgence.

David McNally is the Cullen Distinguished Professor of History and Business at the University of Houston.  He specializes in the history and political economy of  capitalism. The author of seven books and over 60 scholarly articles,  Professor McNally taught political economy at York University in Toronto  before joining the Department of History at the University of Houston.

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